Ants on a Shrimp: Noma Tokyo, The Creation of Fourteen Dishes – DVD Review

Ants on a Shrimp? What the heck does that mean? That and many other culinary questions will be answered in the documentary film, Ants on a Shrimp: Noma Tokyo, The Creation of Fourteen Dishes. Chef Rene Redzepi and his team from the world-renowned Copenhagen restaurant, Noma, travel to Tokyo, Japan on a mission. That mission? To fuse Noma’s menu with the delicacies and tastes of Japan in fourteen unique dishes over the course of a five week timeframe.

What results is a challenge that energizes, a culinary quest to bring two cultures together through the power of food. It’s very interesting to watch as Redzepi and his team search marketplaces for new flavors to infuse into dishes that would not normally be available in his native Copenhagen, Denmark.

Will Redzepi and his team overcome the obstacles put in their way? Will they be able to create fourteen unique and tasty dishes that the locals will enjoy? Is there really a dish called “Ants on a Shrimp” and if so what does it taste like? These questions and more are reveled in this food-centric documentary.

Ants on a Shrimp: Noma Tokyo, The Creation of Fourteen Dishes is available now on DVD.

What’s your favorite film about food? Leave a comment and let us know!

The Childhood of a Leader – DVD Review

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Too often we forget that all leaders – whether it’s Obama, Bush, Clinton, Castro, or Hitler – have one thing in common: they all were children. Each had their own experiences, heartaches, triumphs, and setbacks that made them the leaders they would eventually become. For good or ill, whether they were loved or hated, the leaders mentioned above, and thousands more like them, were influenced by events that transpired in their childhoods.

Enter The Childhood of a Leader, a gripping drama about a young sociopathic boy named Prescott whose primary mission in life appears to make the lives of the adults around him a living hell. With his tantrums and crazy behavior, Prescott’s world revolves around leaving chaos and destruction in his wake for all who encounter him. Taking the brunt of his abuse is his devoted and pious Mother who does everything within her power to control her son; with little effect.

Set against the backdrop of post-WWI Europe, The Childhood of a Leader is an allegory that shows the rise of Fascism that would eventually entangle the rest of the world in the second World War. Is Prescott destined for greatness, or destined for great destruction?

With its superb visuals and excellent score, The Childhood of a Leader is intriguing and engaging entertainment for fans of historical drama. Featuring Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones), Robert Pattinson (the Twilight saga), and Stacy Martin (Nymphomaniac: Part I and Part II), this brilliant piece by first-time director Brady Corbet is powerful filmmaking at its finest.

I recommend The Childhood of a Leader!

The Childhood of a Leader is available now on DVD.

What’s your favorite period drama? Leave a comment and let us know!

The Land – DVD Review

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Every human being on the planet has some level of drive, desire, and ambition. To be the best at something and do what they can to achieve that goal. Even if they fall on their face in defeat, sometimes trying and failing is truly better than never attempting at all. When we meet our four heroes in The Land, they, too, have dreams and aspirations. True, theirs may not be groundbreaking feats of power or prestige, but in their world of skateboarding, what they desire to do makes them legends in their own time.

Cleveland, Ohio. A city of many stories, and four of those belong to friends Cisco, Junior, Patty Cake, and Boobie, four friends with a passion and desire to skateboard their way through summer. Well…they also enjoy carjacking people with the help of their skateboards, which is all well and good until the one day they steal the car of the wrong dude.

While plundering his trunk, the foursome come across bags of pills – MDMA to be exact – that their de factor leader, Cisco, decides is their ticket to skateboarding Nirvana. But when the drug tycoon who owns the pills finds out that the pills have been taken, what happens takes the four friends on a dangerous adventure they won’t soon forget.

With a solid soundtrack and gritty visuals, The Land is a gripping drama about four young men whose fates change forever over the course of a summer of mishaps, missteps, and misadventures.

The DVD includes a short featurette about the making of the film and the film’s trailer.

I highly recommend The Land!

The Land is available now on DVD.

What’s your favorite film or TV series based in Cleveland, Ohio? Leave a comment and let us know!

Joshy – Blu-ray Review

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On the back of the Blu-ray for Joshy, the description of the film begins with the following: “After his engagement suddenly ends…” How does it end “suddenly” you may be asking? Well, it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting and was one of many, many deviations from what could have been a cliché-filled movie. Joshy takes a simple concept and elevates it to new heights of unexpected comedic brilliance.

Joshy is a film about letting go and moving on after something unexpected derails your planned future. How Joshy (Thomas Middleditch) copes and ultimately overcomes the sudden tragedy that befalls him is both funny and moving. Along with his eclectic group of friends, Joshy is able to transcend his grief and become a stronger person as a result.

It’s a multi-layered film that could have been just another rowdy guy’s weekend film but grows into something more profound as he and his friends bond, drink, get high, and ultimately come to some profound realizations about their relationships and themselves.

But don’t worry. Along with all the profundity are plenty of wacky antics and shenanigans with a group of friends who do their best to help their friend while trying to keep their own lives together as well.

Special features include an Audio Commentary with writer/director Jeff Baena, actor/producer Adam Pally, and actor Thomas Middleditch.

For some unpredictable comedy, check out Joshy on Blu-ray!

Joshy is available now on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital Download.

The Caretaker – Movie Review

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There are events in the lives of many people that they wish to forget. For them, the psychological function of repression is a powerful tool that can help eliminate painful and tragic memories from the mind to the point that they can almost feel non-existent. But when these traumatic events are triggered by an object, a person, or a fleeting memory, what follows can be as equally pain-inducing as the initial event.

What happens when such an event returns to one’s consciousness with such force that emotions and actions cause unintended harm? In The Caretaker, we get a glimpse at the dangers of repression, the aftermath of tragedy gone ignored, and the repercussions of past traumatic events that swallow anyone involved in present day activities in their wake of violence.

Birdie (Sondra Kerr Blake) is an elderly woman whom many believe to be a witch. When her initial caretaker has had enough of her shenanigans and the strange events that surround her, Birdie’s granddaughter, Mallorie (Meegan Walker), finds herself tasked with keeping watch over her grandmother. Along with Mallorie’s boyfriend, August (Sean Martini), the duo do their best to care for the aged woman; but mysterious things begin to happen around the house.

Mallorie soon starts having visions and sleepwalking. It’s all a bit much for August who wants nothing more than to get away from the creepy house and its ancient inhabitant (and she doesn’t care much for him, either). When Mallorie uncovers a truth about her grandmother’s past that she had long since repressed, the young woman finds herself trapped in the powerful grip of a world she had once thought gone forever.

Filled with plenty of twists and many creepy moments, The Caretaker draws you into its mysterious narrative and unfolds piece-by-piece until the final revelation leaves you both shocked and a tad off-kilter. It’s a solid work of supernatural storytelling that will have you on the edge of your seat until the screen goes black.

Look for character actor Barry Jenner in one of his final performances. TV fans will know him best as Lieutenant Murtaugh on Family Matters and as Admiral Ross on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Jenner and the rest of the cast deliver stellar performances that are both entertaining and intriguing to watch.

I recommend The Caretaker!

The Caretaker is available now on iTunes, Amazon, and other digital platforms.

What’s your favorite supernatural-based movie? Leave a comment and let us know!

11 Minutes – DVD Review

11 Minutes

A lot can happen in the span of eleven minutes and in the film, 11 Minutes, a lot definitely happens. Eleven minutes at first glance appears to be a short period of time, and yet so much activity and life-changing events can take place over the course of an eleven-
minute time frame that the thought of it is pretty intense.

In the film, 11 Minutes, we are presented with a broad array of seemingly innocuous and unrelated events happening all across the city. Some are mundane activities, while others are in themselves compelling and alter the lives of those directly involved. However, the film’s chronology is encapsulated all within the same eleven minutes, which leads to a collusion of events at the climax of the film.

11 Minutes is a clever metaphor for life as we know it. While what we’re doing, thinking, working for, and reacting to is uniquely from our perspective there are millions of other people living life and doing the exact same things in any given time frame. Sometimes our lives intertwine with others around us, other times we pass them by as nameless, faceless beings sharing the same space.

Whatever happens, we are collectively connected by one singularity: Time. And when our lives within that shared time connect, intersect, or clash is when we realize that we are never truly alone in this human experience.

Also, keep your eyes peeled for the number “11” in its various incarnations throughout the film. Can you spot them all?

For a unique narrative experience, check out 11 Minutes on DVD today.